Why I Ate Mr Therapist
by Larania Drake
Summary: This is the continuation of the Animorphs Home for Recovering Fanfiction Authors story. It ends with happy cannibalism.


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Why I Ate Mr. Therapist

Disclaimer: Animorphs belongs to Scholastic, not me, and I make no money from this.

_"We are not now that strength, which in old days, moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are. One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak-"_

"I wish she would stop that," muttered Marco, Chairman for the Board of Directors of the Animorphs Home for Recovering Fan Fiction Writers.

The Animorphs were all staring through thick plate glass at one of their recently admitted patients, one Larania Drake.

Of course, at times without warning, she would become one of her other personalities. Lory, in particular, would cause havoc. 

"-_time and fate, yet strong of will,"_ mumbled the deranged writer, who still was in a state of catatonia. 

Later

Meridian was talking to ker-in, who looked like she had seen better days. 

"I can't understand why the authors here aren't making better progress," muttered ker-in, who thought that she was Mr. Therapist.

Meridian growled back.

They were in the TV room, but all that was ever seen on the television was the Animorph's TV series. The Directors thought that if they could inspire enough hate for the series, that it would be helpful in the writers' 'recovery'.

Two different orderlies carried in Larania, who was still straightjacketed, muzzled, and chained. Extra restraints had been added to her jacket, following her interesting escape earlier.

She was tossed casually onto one of the unoccupied couches, where she just draped over. It wasn't all that comfortable.

Bob Elder, Larania's twin, sat down beside her, with Allronix the Mistress who was trying to get her back into a tolerable position.

"Thanks be to those who try," mumbled Larania.

Her eyes rolled up in her head, and Lory said," Thanks, twin, Allie."

Avatar took her turn saying thanks.

"Now, patients, we are going to discuss the sad events from yesterday. Larania, do you have something to say?" asked Rachel, who had ended up having to bite Lory to get her to stop attacking Mr. Therapist.

"Twice and twice shall he be marked, twice to live, and twice to die."

__

Rachel gave her a strange look. Apparently, it was still Larania in control. No one could figure out why Lory would suddenly get out. It was disturbing.

"Okay…"

The group session was still going on, but no one could hear the conversation that was going on inside…

_"Larania, why do you keep doing that?" asked Avatar._

Larania, who had been staring blankly out of her eyes, turned inward. "I don't know."

It was a cold, blank space inside their shared mind. Avatar was standing behind Larania, willing to take over whenever Larania's concentration wavered. She looked exactly the same, with curly reddish hair, tall, but she was dressed in garishly bright clothes, with a large apron covered with pockets, which were filled with colored pencils. Avatar had her hands on her hips, looking menacing.

Larania was dressed all in black, reflecting her mood. A jester's cap was on her head, though, giving her a strangely polarized look.

Lory stood behind them all. She was the protector of the group mind, wearing armor, with a sword strapped to her side.

They were all worried when they hadn't been able to find the Real One. She had left a few weeks ago, fear of living making her flee. How she had been able to leave the mind, no one had figured out. Only, they weren't sure that she was gone…

"I'm tired of having to act like a crazed berserker for you, Larania," scolded Lory.

"I know! But the Real One left me in charge. I can't back away from that!"

Fear flitted across the girls' faces. They all had a great sense of responsibility, and the idea of the Real One leaving them had been one of the scariest things they had ever gone through.

**BOOM**

"She's coming!" shrieked Avatar.

Larania shivered, but got ready to take over the body again. Lory drew her sword. 

"Get back out there, Larania," said Lory bravely. "She knows that no one it out there. I will cover you."

Darkness flooded the inside of the already dark mind. Only instead of the clean, cool night-like feeling that had been there, She brought with her the sense of smoke and fire…

Larania ran back to the gate that gave control of the body, hearing a battle cry from Lory as She attacked.

Leaping through like a startled gazelle, Larania heard herself scream back-

"Run, Lory!"

It was heard in the Real World.

All the other writers looked at her like she was crazy. 

The sound of her frightened shout had been muffled by the muzzle, but the fear that had been there was genuine. 

"Do you have something to share with us Larania? Or it this Lory?" asked Mr. Therapist.

"I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone," Larania whispered miserably, trying so hard to stay in control.

The internal battle raged.

Later

"We are so _sick_ of you all killing us, torturing us, getting_ me _pregnant with

__

Jake's baby!" shouted Rachel.

It was a new form of therapy, which involved shouting out what you were mad about. The Animorphs, who ran the Home, had been invited to get their grievances off their collective chests.

"Yeah, and Larania, what is the deal with killing us, then bringing us back to life?" asked Cassie, who was a little ticked that she had been the one that Larania had used to kill of the various yeerks.

"I don't know, you'll have to ask her," grated back Avatar. She had taken a turn in control of the body, giving Larania some time to rest. Since none of the various personalities where Real, they couldn't be constantly "outside," and thus had to take turns.

"Yeah," interrupted Becker, who had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic. She pointed over at a blank space above the window. "Ask her."

There was at least one Andalite other than Ax there, Semier. Ax was trying very hard to stay away from her, on grounds of sexual harassment.

"She managed to have embarrass the Visser, remember?" Avatar started again, but her eyes rolled up in her head, and it was Larania again.

"On the day of the dead, when the year too dies," she started, and the conversation went elsewhere. 

DMP was still giggling. 

"Really, some fics have the consistency of pudding," said Bob Elder. 

"I like pudding!" shouted Forlay.

"But pudding is kind of watery. It has some flavor, but you can't _chew_ it."

"Well, I think pudding is just fine!" she groused in a huff, and left the TV room.

Everyone else was booing the episode "The Alien." It was one the worst that Ani-TV had come out with yet, and every one of the writers there was shouting out catcalls.

Larania was still sitting there, mumbling snatches of poems and songs.

"Hey, Larania," said the Wanderer, who was looking around the room like he expected someone to shoot him at any moment. "The People in White are coming for us!"

He had been diagnosed as paranoid-delusional. Only, everyone there knew that he was right.

"I saw them come for the another couple of writers the other day."

Larania was oblivious to him, but Lory heard, and decided to come out.

"Really?" 

She had taken psychic wounds from the battle with Her, but she was recovering quickly. 

"They got Kyra," he said sadly.

"Did she get to finish 'Allied Forces' first?" Lory asked, her eyes getting very big.

Sadly, the Wanderer shook his head no, and they both saw the screaming and moaning Kyra be dragged in by the recently healed Joe and Bob.

"Please let me finish, I only want to finish this one fic first. Then, I'll be a good little girl. Please, oh, please, I have got to finish!"

It was all that the other writers in the room could do to keep from crying.

"We have got to get out of here," whispered Forlay. The medication they had been giving her had been very effective, until she had started tonguing her meds at night. Now, she was nearly back to her old self.

"What are you planning on doing, making a jail-break, or something?" whispered a now sane sounding DMP, who was no where near as crazy as any one thought she was. She just enjoyed giggling like a maniac most of the time.

A hush had descended over the room as she had said this, and everyone there tried to crowd in.

All except Larania, who had taken up humming again.

Later

It was time for dance therapy.

Kyra was trying to be a tree like Cassie suggested, only she was actually growing roots. Apparently, the anti-fic metal that lined the walls didn't stop a person from affecting herself.

Larania was in there, but her shackles kept her from trying to dance. Instead, she was staring searchingly into the mirrors that covered the walls.

"Now, Renegade, stop hitting that person!" shouted a startled Cassie. RenegadeLegacy and Libra had ganged up on Cara Mia, and they were yelling at her that angst was a good thing, and she had no right to make them stay on topic.

"Where is she?" rasped a soft voice. It was the first time that they had heard anything from Larania that wasn't a verse of some kind.

Larania was struggling to her feet.

"I can't find her!"

"Where is she? There is no one there! No one is there!"

The whole room had shut up, all looking at the screaming Larania.

Fear made her eyes dilate. There was a wild, pained look on her face, like a caged animal.

Cassie had called in Marco to morph a gorilla to get her out of the room. Bob and Joe wouldn't come near her, and after Lory had nearly castrated another of the guards, no one else would either.

The huge gorilla shambled in, but it took him a little too long to get her. Lory took over.

Mr. Therapist had run in after Marco. He had a needle of sedative, which he stuck into her arm.

That was the wrong thing to do. It gave _Her_ a moment to get free.

She was unaffected by the medication.

Earlier, when Larania had been changing from one face to another, nothing had really changed on the outside. This time was different.

Larania's face went pasty white, with the lips becoming the rotted black of gangrene. Black lined the eyes, making her look like a grisly imitation of the Crow.

The straightjacket came off.

"Hi," She said, and launched into a crescent kick.

_Her_ strength was greater than Lory's. She kicked Marco in the head, and the gorilla's head snapped back so hard that he fell over, and his head bounced.

**_Inside_**

"She's free!" wailed Larania, who had been thrown out of control by her surprise earlier.

Lory was dazed by the sedative, but was scrambling back up. She bared her teeth in anger. Avatar was no where to be seen.

Sword drawn, the mental guardian stood back up, and charged.

The body of Larania that had attacked Marco gave a convulsive shudder.

**_Inside_**

The dark shadow that had control of the body was in a mental fencing match with Lory, and Lory was winning. This was the first time She had ever been able to get Out, and wasn't used to controlling the body. Lory's sword, a katana, was a silver whirl of metal that had the dark shadow blade on the defensive. 

Marco was unconscious. Cassie was trying to find time to morph, before the evil thing that was coming after her tried to do something else.

Jessica DragonTamer was wearing a red jacket, and pulled it off.

"Toro, toro!" she shouted, trying to get the mad girl's attention.

It seemed to have worked, because She ran towards her. Unfortunately, Jessica DragonTamer wasn't able to get out of the way in time, and was flung to the side. A cold, icy something reached out from Larania into the other girl.

A tiger crashed into the dance studio, and stood in front of Cassie. Again, icy cold reached out, this time touching everyone in the room.

**_Inside_**

The surprise from Jessica DragonTamer distracted Lory for a moment too long, and a long slice was cut into her chest. Bowing over, the guardian fell to the floor.

Shocked at seeing her other self hurt, Larania jumped in. She didn't really know how to fight, but sheer fear kept her going.

It wasn't enough. She was able to throw the writer down. Leering over the girl, She lifted her blade in a motion that would have taken her head, but-

Cassie was done morphing. 

Libra, who, with the others had figured out that Larania, or whoever it was, was more of a threat right then than the Animorphs, picked her up, and holding her beside the thing that was keeping a full grown tiger at bay. Cassie landed on Her head, and crept to the ear. Cassie had morphed a yeerk.

**_Inside_**

"NO!" screamed Lory, flinging herself between Larania and Her. Lory was a guardian; it was something that she had to do.

It would be the last.

Lory felt the sword-shadow arc through the air, and hit her neck-

I'm in! shouted Cassie.

_Are you?_

Fear chilled Cassie for a moment, but reminded herself that she was a yeerk, and that she could control the body she was in. The host could only talk to her.

If that meant anything, you would know it, said the voice that she had heard earlier.

Cassie wasn't a yeerk, now. She was on a flat, featureless plain. On it, she could see Larania, crouching over the body of a girl that looked just like herself, sans the head.

"Where am I?" she asked, not knowing what the hell was going on.

"Inside my mind."

Turning, Cassie saw someone that was pretty much exactly the same as Larania, only she was older, and her eyes were red from crying. 

"Who are you?"

Sighing, the woman looked over at the spectacle before them.

"I wish I knew."

Jake had managed to down the berserk person, but was getting very confused. Why wasn't Cassie getting anywhere with controlling the body?

"Amazing!" exclaimed Mr. Therapist. "This must be a manifestation of all the depression that Larania has been feeling recently!"

__

The eyes of the thing were rolled up in her head again, the way they did when the personality was about to change.

Urgent whispering went on behind them, as Forlay and the other writers conferred, without the Animorphs hearing what they were saying.

"Look, look here!" Mr. Therapist exclaimed, gesturing to the black marks around her eyes and lips.

What is she? asked Jake, feeling frightened.

"Something you can't diagnose," She said, suddenly coming back to life.

It was then that a Buffy writer, who had been there by accident, formed his hand into a stake and slammed it into Her chest. Casually, She whipped her fist around and nearly snapped his neck.

"I'm not a vampire," She said.

Who are you? asked Marco, who had finally come awake.

_"How did things get this bad?" asked Cassie, staring in wonder at what all her objective experience told her couldn't, and had no business being, real._

"I don't know," said the woman that had spoken earlier, as Larania wept over Lory, and She gloated over her victory.

"Well, what do _you know?" growled Cassie in exasperation._

"That I can't keep this up much longer. That there is so much out there that is trying to destroy Me, that I can't fight them all off."

They were both mesmerized by the sight of Larania's tear streaked face looking up into the dark form of Her.

"There is darkness greater than the one we fight," she whispered. "It is the darkness of the soul, that has lost its way. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams."

"You know me, Marco," She said, only this time she spoke with the voice of his mother.

Everyone stopped still, because the voice they heard was inside them all, telling them all their little fears, their faults, and their pain.

"I am Sadness, I am Pain. I am the shattered remains of dreams, what happens to a person that has lost all faith. I am Despair," she whispered.

__

"You let her do this, didn't you?" commented Cassie, wondering what made her say that.

"I don't know!" the woman shouted, fear making her voice shake.

"Well, find out something that you do know, soon!"

Tears were running down her face when she turned to Cassie.

"I know that I can't find anything worth believing in."

That wasn't what Cassie expected. Usually, when a person has some sort of great pain, then it has something to do with a loved one's loss, or hurt in childhood. She was doing this to herself out of **philosophy**?

"Oh, honestly, I have been through so much worse-" Cassie started, but was interrupted.

"Really? And how hard is it to stop an alien invasion? The actual fighting might be hard, but finding the will to do it wouldn't be."

"If you knew how often the other Animorphs have had that discussion," Cassie started again, but was again cut off.

"I do. Have you ever wondered why so many people write stories about you?"

"Yes," Cassie answered. 

In front of them, Larania was getting up, with Lory's sword, to fight Her. Avatar was walking in, from who knows were, holding her colored pencils like weapons.

"Really, you make it sound like you were some sort of actual creature!" snorted Mr. Therapist, who was getting back to his feet.

"I am real, in all the hearts and minds that will have me," she said in a sillibant voice.

"Oh, good grief," he muttered, trying to find some medication to stick in her arm.

She had already gotten back to her feet. She was giving Mr. Therapist a look that he didn't at all like.

"You know, I was wondering if what I heard was true."

"And what was that?" he asked, thinking that he couldn't really be having a conversation with a concept.

"Do therapists taste like chicken?"

DMP and Forlay, working together for once, where getting their revolt together. 

"To me, my brother and sister writers! We shall overthrow the tyranny that has befallen us!

They had stolen the keys from Bob the Universal Janitor, who had been the one that Larania had nearly castrated, and were unlocking their fellow prisoners. 

They looked into one of the high security rooms.

"Who's that?" asked DMP, at a particularly deranged person that was gnawing on the padding of his room.

"He's the person that wrote an NC-17 Harry Potter fan fiction," said Bob, from behind them. He had rifled through a nurse's station on the way over to help some of the other writers in high security.

Everyone with them, especially those that had been touching the door about to let him out, looked like they wanted to take a shower and burn their clothing.

"I… think that we will leave him right here," said RenegadeLegacy in a slow voice.

"Yup," everyone agreed. They left that particular writer to chew on the padding.

_"We write stories about you all, because real life is worse."_

"That doesn't make any sense," muttered Cassie, but stopped. 

"What do you know about real life, Cassie?" asked a hissing voice.

It was Her.

"Do you what it is like to know that you will probably never be more than a kid that writes stories?"

The woman flinched.

"Do you know what it is like to have all that you ever believed in, absolutely turned upside down? To see what you cared about, suddenly reduced to nothing?"

"I-" 

"To know that all your fears are confirmed: that you are in fact a freak, that the human race should go hang, that freedom is a concept to keep the masses happy, that there is no good or evil, that there is only **power**, and you have none, and can't change things?"

She went on; "Did you know that there is no God, and that you are living because of a few chemical reactions, and that when you try to believe in something, you will inevitably find that it is a lie?"

"What is it like, Cassie, tell me, to never have existed, except in a story, where you are the moralistic one, and that you will never exist except on paper?"

"Did you know that those you could be recreated at any time by someone on a computer? Did you know, that the powerful use the weak to stay strong? That love is just a trick of nature to get you to reproduce?"

The tirade struck at Cassie's weakest points. Cassie could see that the woman was crying again, blowing her nose as tears turned her face a splotchy red.

"If there is nothing but evolution, then what right have you, the inferior species, to try to fight the yeerks? Why should you care? You are only a few lines of ink."

Cassie didn't know. She didn't know what to do!

"After all, you have an objective. You can do whatever you want, little Animorph, because you aren't real."

"Why are you doing this?" asked the woman.

"Eh?"

Slowly, like she was coming out of a thick fog, the woman went on," She isn't a part of me. You may be right about me, but she has nothing to do with us."

"She came into my place."

A dangerous light sparked in the woman's eyes. "This is my place."

"I can't get out!" shouted Forlay when they got to the door of the institution.

The walls, with their thick anti-fic lining, were nearly unbreakable. The doors were even worse.

"Now what do we do," whined Allie, who had been getting on to Larania earlier.

"I don't know!"

_"You let me in, and that means I get to do whatever I want here," She yowled, coming at the woman with her shadow blade._

"I may let you hurt me," the woman yelled back, "but someone else? That is another story."

Larania, who had realized that the Real One had come back, tried to heave the katana over to the woman, but was brought up short by a flung colored pencil, which now was sticking out of her eye.

"I also have some friends of my own here," said She, who was starting to laugh.

The woman looked at Avatar, who had hurled the pencil.

"Be gone."

She opened her black eyes to their largest.

"I still have control here."

The woman decided that, what the heck, she would do something out of her favorite movie…

The woman pulled something off her belt. Striking a pose, a beam of light shot out of each end.

"I think I can handle you, now."

The two females hissed at each other, and the fight was joined.

Cassie decided to get out before they got her!

Crawling out of the ear, Cassie wondered if she had gone nuts while in the sick writer's head.

All of the writers were running around like crazy. Someone was yelling, "Katie Bell set the NC-17 Harry Potter guy on fire!"

"Oh, my God!" Cassie yelled, and made a run for it.

It was much later. The writers had been rounded up, and they were returned to their cells.

"Thank goodness that we have them all back where we can keep an eye on them," proclaimed Marco, who was nursing a black eye.

"I don't know," mumbled Cassie. She had told them all about what had happened inside the author's head. They had doubted it at first, but both Jake and Marco had felt the coldness that had come from Her.

"I think… I think that we need to let them go."

"Huh?" said Rachel. "I thought you hated what they did to us as much as everyone else!"

"They do some strange stuff, but, Rachel, we aren't real. This is why we are here, to help people forget that things may not be what they want, and to give them a little hope, even if it is just to have something to write about."

Turning pleading eyes at Jake, Cassie said, "Please?"

They turned them all loose. It was one of the hardest things that they would ever be faced with, but it proved the courage that the Animorphs had.

"Where am I?" asked the woman, now using her real name. Then again…

"Where am I?" asked Larania. 

She looked around. "Why am I still in the dance studio? And why do I feel so full?"

"Has anybody seen Mr. Therapist?" asked DMP, looking worried.

The end.


End file.
